Friday, 27 October 2017

The use of apps, social media and other methods of digital communication between people is constantly on the increase. This practice has extended into armed conflicts, where parties to the conflicts use such tools for their communications. Is international humanitarian law (IHL) applicable to the employment of these new technologies during armed conflict—and if so, how? Read Pontus Winther's post in ICRCs blog Humanitarian Law and Policy.

Thursday, 17 August 2017

Stockholm Center for
International Law and Justice and the Centre for International and
Operational Law (CIOL) at the Swedish Defence University invite you
to a panel discussion on

Cyber operations and
international law: prospects for global norms?

Although some
early enthusiasts thought of cyberspace as a realm beyond sovereignty, it is
now abundantly clear that both domestic law and international law apply to
cyberspace. However, there is no international convention on security in cyberspace
and no global consensus on exactly how
existing international law applies. A UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) has
been trying to set out how current international law applies and formulate draft
rules on responsible behaviour in cyberspace, but their latest meeting, in
2017, was ultimately unsuccessful. Efforts are ongoing in other fora, like the
G20 and OSCE, but the world is still far from agreement on how existing law
shall apply and what, if any, new rules are needed. In the meantime, the number
of cyber incidents are multiplying and getting more serious, with attacks from
both states and non-state actors. This panel will present current efforts of
regulating security cyberspace and discuss the prospects for future
regulations.

Presentation of the problem -- the application of
international law to cyber operations (Professor Pål Wrange, Stockholm
University)

The Tallinn Manual process (Professor Terry Gill,
University of Amsterdam)

First speaker of the day was Marika Ericson (lecturer and PhD candidate, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on the topic of the Swedish experiences in regards of the interplay between domestic law and international law, and the institutional responsibilities.
Ms Ericson emphasized that the weakest point in cyber security is that technology is developed based on everything but security. Moreover, is cyberattacks a challange to the dichotomy of war and peace? Do we need a third paradigm?

Marika Ericson. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

Colonel Gary Corn (Staff Judge Advocate, US Cyber Command; USA) gave a presentation on Navigating
Grey Zone Challenges in and through Cypberspace. COL Corn also pointed out the difficulty of categorizing a cyberattack as an armed attack or as an action in peace time. He emphasized that before taking countermeasures to a cyberattack, states have to analyze what authority it has, and that states need to have justification in interantional law in order to take action. He also stressed the necessity of defining whether the cyberattack breached any interanational laws or was lawful.

Colonel Gary Corn. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

The Seminar continued with a presentation from Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss (Senior Lecturer in international law, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on Human Enhancement Technologies: Solider 2.0 – Miliatry Human Enhancement & International Law. As Dr. Harrison Dinniss clarified, the human enhancement applies to the idea of Captain America rather than the Terminator, that is, not robots. She talked about three major developments in human enhancement: biochemical, cybernetics and prostheses. We are upgrading people. Giving them abilities what is beyond what is considered “normal”.

Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

Dr. Bill Boothby (Associate Fellow Geneva Centre for Security Policy, UK) spoke of autonomous weapons and some of the problems with the concept of "person in the loop" in regards of remotely polited aircrafts. The loop consists of two links: the uplink from the operator to the aircraft through which instructions are given; and the downlink from the aircraft to the centre giving information to the operator - who gives instructions to the aircraft.